part one
He was feeling pretty good. School had just let out early. Christmas break had just begun. His church’s Christmas play was tonight and he was to be one of the 3 Wisemen.
He heard a voice behind him call out. His good feeling suddenly went south. It was the voice of Sean, who had been his best friend since the summer before 4th grade. The past few weeks, Sean had not been very friendly. In fact, he acted as though he hated the Ninth Grader. It was a mystery. Every chance meeting in the hallway was filled with angry words and actions. The Ninth Grader wondered what was coming now. He had hoped to get a break from the harassment during this vacation time. Hopefully, Sean would come to his senses in the next 2.5 weeks and they could be friends again.
Wrong!! Sean was approaching with malice in his eyes. “You wanna fight me?” challenged Sean.
The Ninth Grader replied, “No, I don’t want to fight you.”
Not the answer Sean was looking for. A crowd of their classmates was forming. Sean hurled a few insults at the Ninth Grader. He kept pushing. Finally, it was clear. He had no choice. The Ninth Grader would have to fight Sean.
The Ninth Grader felt a bit sick. He knew nothing of fighting. He’d had tussles with his big brother, usually just the older boy using his size and strength to intimidate his younger brother. They had wrestled in PE class, but, by the looks of things, this was not going to a wrestling match.
Sean struck first with a sharp jab, bloodying the Ninth Grader’s nose. The Ninth Grader tried to lash out with his own fists, but had no concept of distance control or timing and his flailing accomplished nothing. Sean struck again, this time a round house punch to the jaw. The Ninth Grader was dazed and in pain. A follow-up punch connected with the Ninth Grader’s mouth, splitting his upper lip. Wasn’t he going to look fine in the Christmas play?
Suddenly, the crowd of onlookers parted and the Vice-Principal was there, standing between the 2 former friends. The fight was over.
The Ninth Grader was bothered that he was so inept at defending himself. He had no chance in the fight and he knew it. He never wanted to feel that helpless again. He had heard of Judo and Karate and thought it might be good to learn one or both of these arts, not to be a bully. Just to be able to have confidence and not feel sick when the possibility of confrontation raised its head. All he had to do was find an instructor. Harder than it sounds. This was 1969. There was no internet, google was just a number, yahoo was an exclamation of delight while riding a horse. All he had was the phone book, the library and word of mouth. The martial arts were rarely seen and quite mysterious, especially where the Ninth Grader lived. This was not going to be an easy search.
(to be continued)
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